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Volunteers and board members of the Guilford County Republican Party are spending the morning cleaning.

For the second time in a matter of months, vandals spray-painted divisive messages outside the Guilford County Republican Party headquarters at 3950 West Market St.

Sometime Saturday, multiple tags of “KKK” and “Klan” were painted on signs, the front glass and on the outside of the building.

“We’ll take some precautions to put up some surveillance so that it won’t happen again,” Michael Picarelli, executive director for the Guilford County Republican Party, said Sunday night.

He hoped to have the surveillance in place by this afternoon.

This time of year, before the primary, the headquarters operates like any other business, he said.

“It’s open from around

8:30 to 5 — there’s really not anyone there unless we’re doing a scheduled function,” Picarelli said.

After the primary, activities at the headquarters are expected to pick up.

The first time vandals hit the office, signs were pulled down and defaced but it was not as bad as last weekend, Picarelli said.

“This is the first time that we’ve had multiple tags on the building and a divisive message,” Picarelli said.

He said that the political environment locally and nationally is divisive.

But he suspects the vandalism is the work of teenagers, not political opponents.

With no reports of political signs being torn down or defaced in other areas of the county, Picarelli said the vandalism is isolated to this area.

“We feel like this is a small group of teenagers who were going out to specifically target the building,” he said.

Under a state statute it is illegal to steal, deface, vandalize or unlawfully remove a legally posted campaign sign.

Greensboro police have been notified about the vandalism and are investigating.

“I think, fortunately, all the coverage will shed some light on it, to let people know it’s not right to do that,” Picarelli said. “We just want to make clear that this type of display should not be tolerated.”

Contact Tiffany S. Jones at 373- 7157 or tiffany.jones@news-record.com